


Sins of the Mother

by MadreLoca



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-19
Updated: 2013-06-19
Packaged: 2017-12-15 11:03:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/848781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadreLoca/pseuds/MadreLoca
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In anger he killed her. In love she died again. But this time, she would not be alone. AU story, don't like, don't read.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sins of the Mother

**Author's Note:**

> This is AU, but I tried not to mess up Episodes 4-6. Basically it's an alternate ending to Episode 3 because I got pissed off when they turned a fighter like Padmé into some helpless damsel in distress. Because this story is to give her a voice, I'm writing it in first person. One more warning, there's almost maybe a slight hint of a smidgen of a suggestion of ObiMé. I had mixed reviews of this on fanfiction.net, including some serious flame. Please don't flame. Don't like, don't read. That simple!

My name is Padmé Amidala. In a perfect life it would be Skywalker and Anakin and I would never have had to hide our union. We could have lived on Naboo and raised our children in a place with no danger. Maybe Tatooine would have been part of the republic and we could have visited Shmi and Owen on birthdays and holidays.

Would have been. Could have been. I realize now that life is too short to dwell on those. Now at the end I see my life for what it really was: a lie.

A lie that killed us.

It was unavoidable. My fate was sealed the moment I set foot in that junk shop. If I would have known all those years ago that it would end like this, I never would have gotten off the ship. I would have stayed behind like a good little queen and let Qui Gon Jin do his job. Or would I? Is it really better to have loved and loosed that to never have loved at all? Would it have been better or worse if I had never met that "funny little boy?" I'll never know. All I know is that I fought, even when I knew that death was a full gone conclusion. Obi Wan tried to stop me, but he of all people should know that death is always a full gone conclusion.

But Anakin didn't die; he only dissipated and now all that is left is a black suit and a shell of a man that I gave up everything to love. I remember when I told him that I wasn't afraid to die. I'm not. What I am afraid of is what my husband has become, and the fact that he did all off this because he thought it would save me. Well, he's caused more destruction in his attempt to prevent it.

He did this because of me. That, in my mind, means I am to blame for Darth Vader. Obi Wan said it's not my fault; that it had nothing to do with me but rather a lust for power and a manifestation of rage built up inside of him. He said that Anakin had always had the dark side with him but even Obi Wan himself had failed to realize it- or maybe just refused to. Obi Wan said Anakin is evil. Obi Wan said this. Obi Wan said that. Now I see why Anakin got so frustrated and impatient with his master.

I don't believe him. Anakin isn't evil; he can't be. He's a good person. I know. I may not be a Jedi, I may not use the force, but I can feel it. It was in the way he looked at me, the way he smiled, the way he held me as if the force itself could never separate us. It was in the way he kissed me, the way he made love to me. It was in the way he spoke my name in moments of joy, pain, and passion. It is in his heart, shattered by loss. It is in his soul, poisoned by anger.

Someday he will think of me with love again. Anakin will come back. It won't be in time to save me, but maybe it will be in time for Luke and Leah. I told him that one day he would find his compassion again; that he would see someone dying and save them. He doesn't believe me. He's lost sight of why he's doing this. He probably doesn't love me anymore. But it's alright.

I died for him.

Yes, I'm dead.

My name is Padmé Amidala. I am a senator from the sovereign system of Naboo. I am a wife and the mother of twins. This is not the story of my life. This is the story of how I died.

\- - - - - - - - - - -  
The last thing I heard before I blacked out was a smooth yet desperate voice pleading with me to stay alive. Then all went white, then black. I woke up dazed and confused, unable to figure out where I was or even for a moment who I was. What just happened? Where is Anakin? Where are the babies?

Then I remembered. All at once the images and feelings slammed into me, knocking the breath from my tiered lungs. I was almost unconscious again when I saw Obi Wan step through the open doorway. He walked towards the bed looking at me with eyes full of so many emotions uncharacteristic of Jedi. He rested his hand on mine and sat down in a chair beside my bed.

"Are you alright?" He asked in his gentle voice.

"What happened," I asked, almost ashamed at how week my voice sounded, high pitched and shaking. "Where am I? Is Anakin-"

Obi Wan interrupted me with words that shook the universe. "There's no more Anakin, Padmé."

"What?" Some unexplainable barrier between my thoughts and my voice prevented me from saying anything else. I wanted to ask so many things, to say so many things. _Is he dead? Did he really turn to the dark side? Did Obi Wan kill him?_

_I love him. There's still good in him. I have to find him._

"Anakin has died to himself. He's become Darth Vader. I tried to bring him back, Padmé, but it's no use. He's been overtaken and consumed by the dark side of the force."

I didn't understand what the dark side was or what the Sith were all about. I didn't understand how Anakin could deny everything he had lived for, deny the Jedi, deny me. Didn't he do this for me in the first place?

"No," I protested, "No. He's not evil. He just did this to save me. He can't be Sith. He..." I was wearing myself out with all of this protesting. I moaned groggily and squinted my eyes against the light.

"I'm sorry. It may have started that way, but Anakin's rage and lust for power grew in the dark side and made him forget all of that."

"There must be a way to-"

"No, Padmé. We both tried to make him stop, remember, but it was useless. Darth Vader has no care for Anakin's old life. Essentially Anakin is dead. I know that this isn't easy for you. I know you loved him. I loved him too. He was like my brother. It's all as Yoda said; the boy I trained is gone. The man you loved is gone. He's really more machine now than man, physically and emotionally. A machine programmed to hate and destroy."

Love had turned to hate. Compassion had turned to rage. Gentleness had turned to destruction. But one thing remained the same- passion. It was that passion inside of me that erupted from my eyes in fiery tears followed by erratic sobs that I couldn't have held back even had I tried. But I was too tiered, physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted to hold back my own hate. Not hate for Anakin. Hate for what had happened, for what everything and everyone was turning into.

_It's because of what you've done, what you plan to do. You're going down a path I can't follow._

Just barely, I could feel Obi Wan stroking my undone hair and hear him whisper so-called consolations that meant absolutely nothing. I'm pretty sure I cried myself to sleep, all the while with Obi Wan never leaving my bedside.  
\- - - - - - - - - - -  
I awoke feeling anemic and week in a room that looked like a hospital. I heard a muffled voice that sounded like a medical droid in the next room. With what strength I had I turned my head and could see it through the glass talking to Yoda.

"She's lost a lot of blood," it said, "She hasn't stopped bleeding since the birth. Some blood is normal after childbirth, but not like this."

"Dying, is she?" Yoda inquired in his inverted grammar.

"She needs a transfusion quickly, or she will be. Even then, we can't be sure. But she's putting up quite a fight."

The droid waddled mechanically away from Yoda and entered my room followed by a second droid. They were marked differently (maybe one was a nurse and one was a doctor?) Yellow Mark started linking up some chords and tubes to a machine that...I don't know what the machine was supposed to have been doing. It was only then that I realized that I was hooked up to chords and tubes. I could tell that one was monitoring my heartbeat, which was uneven, another my blood pressure, which was low. My lands, how was I even conscious? I was slipping in and out, I think.

Blue Mark was prepping the bag of blood for my transfusion. Before I realized it, Yellow Mark was rubbing my arm with something. Then I saw the needle. I wanted to vomit, but I didn't. I've never liked needles. I felt the needle pierce the skin, and to my own surprise I cried out. It was more from the shock of the sudden entry then from pain. Actually, it didn't hurt at all. I felt numb. Everything was numb.

I started thinking about so many pointless things. Would it feel like to have blood inside me that wasn't mine? Why does Yoda talk that way? Would Anakin be mad that I named our son Luke? He hated that name.

Anakin.

Hate.

Luke.

My children!

All of a sudden I felt like a horrible mother. I had spent all that time before arguing with Obi Wan over Anakin that I never even thought about Luke and Leah.

"O..." I tried to call for Obi Wan, but my voice wouldn't work. I tried again. "O...bi..."

I didn't have to struggle with my voice any longer, because as I tried a third time to say his name, he came almost running through the doorway.

"It's all right, Padmé," he assured me, "I'm here for you."

Once again I struggled with my words and managed to form two. "Luke. Leah."

"They're fine. They're beautiful and healthy."

Hearing those words calmed me and let me relax. It was easier to speak now, but I still had to make an effort. "Where?"

"They're still aboard the ship. Would you like to see them?"

"First rest. Need rest. Tiered."

Obi Wan smiled weakly. "I understand. Do you want me to stay with you?"

"Obi Wan?" called Yoda from the doorway. "Speak with you, I must."

"I'm sorry, Padmé."

I would have asked him to stay had Yoda not taken him away from me.

I guess everyone was taking everything away from me lately.

I didn't go straight to sleep when Obi Wan left. I listened to their voices for a moment, though I couldn't tell what they were talking about. But I was content with that. I probably didn't want to know.

I was at peace with myself there in that hospital-type room. I knew that my children were safe. It didn't matter what happened to me now. But that didn't mean that I wanted to die. Not yet. Not until I did what needed to be done. My mind was made up. There was no changing it and no going back. I pictured Anakin's face as I drifted off to sleep, but the dream I would have of him would not be enough.

I knew I had to see him one last time.  
\- - - - - - - - - - -  
I'm not sure how many days passed without me having ever seen Luke and Leah. The first time I really saw them, the first time I held them, was magic. It felt as if holding them in my arms could send my strength surging right back into me, giving me the power to do everything. Obi Wan brought them to my room one day while I was sleeping. He was holding them both in his arms when Leah woke up and started crying. Hearing this, I awoke to the best vision of my life. It was the first time since I gave birth to them that I had seen them. The moment I saw them I started crying tears of joy. Obi Wan smiled warmly and gently placed them in my arms. He helped me sit up on the edge of the bed so I could hold them better. As soon as I took them, Leah stopped crying. I guess she knew mommy was there. No words were spoken. No words were needed. All that was needed was the long awaited moment of peace and joy.

I was beginning to gain some of my strength back, and although the bleeding never stopped, it did slow down tremendously. I spent most of my time laying down, sitting with Obi Wan and holding my beautiful babies. I may have felt week, but I felt alive. Regardless of how alive I felt, they still thought I was going to die.

Well, I didn't think I was going to die.

I knew I was going to die. If technology and science weren't helping me, I knew that something greater, something more powerful, something with a lot more authority than computers was deciding my fate. That's why I spent these days the way I did. I wanted to enjoy something simple for the first time in so long. I remember the last time I felt like something was simple. I was in Anakin's arms. It may have only lasted a moment, but it was good for us. It was a moment like the ones we never got enough of.

_Hold me the way you did on Naboo when there was nothing but our love. No fighting, no politics, no war._

Those days in the Lake Country with Anakin were the best days of my life. There really was nothing there but our love singing in perfect harmony with the trees, the flowers, and the sparkling blue water. No one was there to tell us we had to hide. No one bothered us unless you count the little blue and yellow bird that woke Anakin up every morning. It would cling to the vines outside the bedroom window and sing to its little heart's delight. Anakin would wake up to it and not be able to go back to sleep in his annoyance. Eventually he would give up and go outside on the deck to meditate or just watch the sun rise. About an hour later I would wake up and we would go eat breakfast. This was how it went almost every morning. But on the very last morning that we were there, the bird didn't show up. We never heard it sing again. I suppose even the little bird knew that everything was about to change.

I knew what the bird knew, but I was afraid to admit it to myself. Anakin didn't think things would change. He thought we would always have the perfect, beautiful life of love we'd had on Naboo. Anakin had a fantasy in his head that he was never able to let go of. When he figured out that he'd been wrong all this time, that things were never going to be perfect again, he fell apart. He reached out in a desperate attempt to salvage what was left of the life he remembered, of the life he wanted, before it was too late. But he dissolved under the pressure of it all. He just didn't know how to handle seeing his dreams going up in smoke that way. In turn, he went up in smoke. Literally. I had forced myself to come to terms with that.

I couldn't help but wonder something. If I offered him that perfect life again and told him to come back to Naboo with me, might he actually do it? Could we survive? I laughed at myself a little. I know him better than that. He thinks I've turned against him. He would see anything I said to try to turn him away from the Emperor as a trap set by Obi Wan and me. I knew this. I believed this wholeheartedly.

So why was I still planning on doing it?

It was because I could see a sparkle of new hope in the eyes of my babies. It was a hope that maybe despite what I knew that something I said would find its way through into his heart.

It was a stupid notion, but it was the only one I had left. It would be hard to leave my children, but I knew that Obi Wan would keep them safe. It would be hard to leave Obi Wan, too, but knowing that he would watch over my children somehow made it easier. I suppose I just didn't want any of them to be alone like I was.

I wanted all of them: Obi Wan, Yoda, Luke, and Leah to have someone beside them and to never be alone. I didn't want to be alone. Oh well. My life doesn't exactly have a history of giving me what I want, does it?  
\- - - - - - - - - - -  
"No, Padme," Obi Wan insisted again. "It's to dangerous! He will kill you. Besides, you're sick anyway. You don't have the strength for an 'adventure' like that."

Obi Wan should have known that he was fighting a loosing battle. My mind was made up and there was no way I was going to let him talk me out of the only thing that could ever give me peace.

"What difference is there if I die here or if I die at the hands of the Emperor?"

"I wasn't talking about the Emperor." I knew who he was talking about, and If I know Obi Wan, he knew I knew who he was talking about. I had just hoped he would not correct me. It wasn't that I was afraid, but I had to keep faith in what I was doing. The thought of Anikin killing me was only depressing and in no way deterring. "I'm going to find Anikin, and you can't stop me."

"Oh yes I can," he scolded me like a father would a rebellious daughter and it made me wonder how many times he had used that tone with Anikin. "I am a Jedi and you are a senator. It is my job to protect you."

I froze. The humor of the irony of those words suddenly made me angry. Did he not understand what had happened? "A Jedi? A senator?" I laughed bitterly. "Obi Wan, in case you haven't noticed, let me open your tunnel-vision eyes. You are not a Jedi because the Jedi order is gone, and I am not a senator because there is no more Republic! I'm just the Emperor's chain-link to the Naboo, and you are just a force-wielding knucklehead!"

I almost tripped over Yoda when I spun around to storm off. I hadn't even realized he was there. I hardly gave him a second glance.

I could here their conversation as I walked away.

"Suborn, she is, and hard to convince."

"I can't let her get herself killed. Loosing Anikin was enough, I can't loose her too."

"Be mindful of your fear, Obi Wan. Die she will, no difference in her fate will her choice make. But for your old Pad Wan..."

I could not hear him finish his sentence before I made it out of hearing range, but the last words I would ever hear from the old green Jedi master would helm me keep my faith.

But for your old Pad Wan...

I completed the sentence in my mind and re-affirmed my hope for the future. No matter what I did, I would die. But maybe something I did would play a hand in Anikin's destiny. For once Yoda understood. And hopefully Obi Wan could, too. I wasn't doing this for me.

_It was because I could see a sparkle of new hope in the eyes of my babies. It was a hope that maybe despite what I knew that something I said would find its way through into his heart._

Making my way to the hanger, I could feel my self weaken and grow dizzy. I couldn't stop now, though.

"Mat I assist you, Milady?" I turned around to a voice I did not recognize. A man was walking with C-3PO and R2D2.

"You have my gratitude, but I'm alright. Where are you taking those droids."

"I have orders to have their memories erased."

"Please, Miss Padme," the golden droid pleaded, "don't let this happen. Save us!"

For some reason my heart sank. All knowledge of what had really happened would now be lost. But that might just be for the best. If the Emperor got his hands on the information those droids had it would be disaster. This knowledge did not stop me from feeling sad for 3PO, even if he was just a walking mess of chips and wires. He had been a good friend.

"I'm sorry, 3PO." He didn't need to remember these dreadful times, anyway.

I took Obi Wan's fighter. It was closest, and I knew the controls. As I strapped myself into the cockpit, I felt fear for the first time. I wasn't sure what I was afraid for, or even what I was afraid of, but I was afraid. I ignored it, telling myself that it would only get me in trouble, that it would only cause me pain, that I had no use for it anymore.

_Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering._

I left my fear in the hanger as the fighter shrieked and blasted away, taking me on my inevitable path into the never-ending darkness.  
\- - - - - - - - - - -  
I had no problem finding Emperor Palpatine's battalion of battleships. I didn't need the force to feel the hatred and evil resonating from every vestal. The closer I got, the the stronger I felt the presence of terror. The stronger the presence became, the more I actually began to truly think about what I was doing. For the first time in this endeavor I asked myself why I was doing this. I doubted myself. That's what the dark side does, I reminded myself. It makes you doubt everything you ever knew or felt. It made Anakin doubt our love. I was not about to let it do the same to me. I had to be stronger than my doubt, my fear, my anger, my hate, my suffering. I had to press on.

I felt something pulling. Something was drawing me closer toward what seemed to be the command ship. Something. Or someone. But then something strange happened. It seemed I was being sent in a circle around what may have been a construction zone. It was a construction zone. It was enormous. If it was some sort of space station, it was quite possibly the largest in existence. By looking at the frame I could tell that the completed monstrosity would be a sphere shape. My lands, what sort of weapon of destruction and tyranny was the emperor constructing? My heart sank into my stomach when I realized that Anakin must be helping his new "master" build this.

I completed the circle and then let whatever was pulling me pull me back towards the command ship.

My transport landed in bay of the ship I was pulled to and everything shut down on its own. Or not on its own. I stepped out and waited. If the Emperor pulled me in, he would surely be there soon. The doors at the end of the hanger slid open and there stood...not the Emperor. Not anyone or anything that I recognized. Whoever it was took slow, pounding steps towards me. The man wore a black armored suit and a helmet and mask that completely covered his face, causing his breathing to sound very loud. As he grew closer I could see that he red visor of the mask was just transparent enough that I could barely see his eyes, meaning whoever this was was at least mostly human. And those eyes... They were so strange but I knew those eyes...

Anakin.

I felt sick. What had Obi Wan done to him? What had the Emperor done to him? What had he done to himself?

Anakin spoke and it did not even sound like his voice, it sounded more like a machine just like Obi Wan had said. "Why have you come here, Padme? My master told me that you were dead."

"I'm sorry to have disappointed you Ani."

I jumped when he shouted back. The machinery of his suit made it sound more like the roar of an angry animal then the voice of my any human let alone my husband. "Do not call me by that childish pet name, Senator! That was a name for your husband. I am a Sith Lord. You will address me as Lord Vader."

"With all due respect Lord Vader," I mocked him with the use of his title. "You are no more a Sith Lord than I am a Gungan."

"Then I must prove to you my power in the dark side of the force."

I didn't have much time to kick myself for my mockery of his new position before the air around me become light and the floor beneath my feet fall away. Before I realized what was happening I was several feet up and Anakin was just looking at me through the red visor of the helmet that hid him from everyone, including himself. I wish I could have seen his eyes in that moment. I needed to read his expression to know exactly what to do next.

As if I could do anything but hang suspended by the force in the air. His black-gloved hand raised in my direction and I felt my through tighten. I couldn't breath.

"No, Ani," I managed to choke out, "Not again." I did not come here to beg for my life. I came here to beg for his. What was left of it.

I watched his hand as he drew it in towards his chest sending me flying forward. He clenched his fist and then let his arm relax. I fell to the ground at his feet.

Coughing and trying to ketch my breath, I said, "Look at your self Anakin! How can you be doing this? The Emperor lied to you so he could have you to himself, don't you see?"

"He..." Anakin hesitated. "He told me there would be peace!"

"He told you I was dead! And here I am, Ani," I fought with every muscle, every bone, every nerve in my body and managed to bring my self up to stand. In that moment I felt as if my strength was coming from something greater than myself, greater even than my own constitution. I stood before him and look straight up into his eyes. "Here, I am, standing right in front of you."

"No!" He was in denial, much like I had been in the beginning, when I had first learned of this travesty from Obi Wan.

_No. Your wrong. He can't be Sith!_

"He was mistaken!" he continued. "He just couldn't sense it! I couldn't even sense it!"

My eyes softened and I extended my hand towards his masked face and, to my surprise, he let me. "You're not all-powerful. Ani..."

_Some day I will be. I will even learn to stop people from dying!_

"...but if I'm alive, then you have accomplished your ultimate goal."

It was my quest to allow some part of him, of us, to be spared this evil that kept me alive. In a twisted sense, I suppose the dark side did save me. If only for a little while.

"You don't have to do this anymore, Ani," I continued. "You..." Oh, no. Not again. I felt my legs weakening and before I had a chance to steady myself I was falling. But something unexpected happened. He caught me. A strong arm wrapped around my waist and another held my head up. My vision was becoming blurry, and I felt myself being lowered to the floor.

By the time I was able to see again, he was kneeling on the floor with me wrapped up in his arms and my head on his chest.

"Take me away from this place, Ani," I whispered. "No overthrowing the Emperor, no more fighting, please Ani, no more fighting!"

"I can't." he said simply, as if it was so obvious. "Don't you see that I have everything I've ever dreamed of? I will be the most powerful Sith Lord ever!"

"Then have the power to walk away!" I pleaded, attempting to sit up on my own.

I saw something cross his eyes, something I did not recognize, but I could tell it was bad.

"That's Obi Wan's fighter," he said with a tone that I could not identify.

"I stole it."

"You and Obi Wan are trying to draw me away from the emperor so you can overthrow him! So the Jedi can take over!" He stood abruptly, leaving me slumped over on the floor. "I see through your lies, now! I almost believed you!"

"No, Ani!" I shouted, not in pleading, but sternly, like the mother I was. Where was he getting these delusions? Why was he doing this again? I used his own words. "I don't want to hear any more about Obi -"

"Obi Wan has been trying to take you away from me from the very beginning. Now he has betrayed the Emperor, betrayed me and worse, he has made you betray your Emperor and your husband!"

"I have never betrayed anyone, Anakin. The only traitor in this room is you!"

"Oh, I beg to differ, Senator Amidala," I heard a voice from the other side of the hanger in the doorway that Anakin had come through. The figure wore a long, black cloak whose hood covered his eyes and the top of his nose. His voice was rough, yet it flowed like poisoned wine from the bottle. I knew of only one voice in the galaxy that could match this seductively evil tone.

Emperor Palpatine.

"You're right," I replied, "I suppose now I am the only one it this room who isn't a traitor."

"You chose your words unwisely, Senator. And to think you used to be so much more diplomatic. What a pity that you did not remain on my side."

"Remain?" I questioned. "I was never on your side!"

The Emperor chuckled darkly. "Once again you are mistaken. Who called for the vote of no confidence against Former Chancellor Velorumn which lead to my nomination? Who was the leader in the fight against the Military Creation Act? Who left Acting Senator Binks in your seat to propose for my 'emergency powers' while you were off gallivanting in the lake country?"

I felt sick at what I had done. Not only had I fed Anakin's greed and gave him a reason to seek out the dark side, I let myself be manipulated by the Dark Lord himself and became personally responsible for his rise to power. I had been Darth Sidius' pawn from the very beginning.

And so Anakin had been as well.

This, I realized, I could use. I was learning to play the Emperor's game, a fact that frightened me. "So you just used me then. The Trade Federation invasion, the assassination attempts, all of it was just a ploy to get me to raise you on to your pedestal." I then looked away from the Emperor and back to Anakin. "You, too Ani. Forcing our landing on Tatooine, the battle on Geonosis, Duku's murder, everything was part of his plan to build you into -"

"Silence!" the Emperor interrupted. "Enough of your lies!" He turned his head slightly towards Anakin. "This is why I did not attempt to see her fate and tell you the truth; To spare you her treachery! She is trying to take away everything that we have achieved. We have both made sacrifices, my apprentice, but we have built an empire together. Just as I have foreseen, she has the power to ruin it!" His eyes, his sunken-in red-circled eyes met mine. I felt as if his evil weekend me and I slumped back down on the floor. I knew then that I had reached my limit, that my body and soul were too week to go an any further. His next words did not phase me. "Kill her."

"Anakin," I had one last think to say before I died, by whatever means. "They will save you and you...you will save them." He didn't need to know who "them" was. "You will see who you are."

"I am Darth Vader," he replied, then turned to face the Emperor. "If we leave her hear, she will die."

The Emperor hummed in agreement. "Very well my apprentice."

And with that the Emperor simply walked away. Anakin followed seconds after.

"Anakin," I said with the last bit of strength I had left. "I truly, deeply love you. And before I die I want you to know."

I had said everything I had come to say. Now I could be at peace. As I began to slip away I felt the floor tremble beneath his footsteps. But they weren't leading away. They were leading back – back towards me.

In my very last moment, and I can not be certain if it was an echo in my mind or if it was really him, but I heard him call out my name.


End file.
